Prosecutors will recommend a new sentence for Erik and Lyle Men…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez be sentenced again for the 1989 murders of their parents at the family’s Beverly Hills home, giving the brothers a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

An official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak on the record before a planned news conference confirmed that Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón would recommend a new sentence for the brothers.

They were sentenced in 1996 to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors must now seek court approval for their resentencing recommendation.

Lyle Menendezthen 21, and Erik Menéndez, then 18, admitted that they shot and killed their entertainment executive father, José Menéndez, and their mother, Kitty Menéndez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

The extended family of brothers has requested his releasesaying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world, which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse, the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder or sentenced to life in prison.

Several members of his extended family, including his aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the front rows of Thursday’s news conference. Joan Andersen VanderMolen was Kitty Menéndez’s sister and has publicly supported her release. Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, was also present.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for the murders of their parents, and the first trial ended with a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time maintained that there was no evidence of sexual abuse and many details in his sexual abuse story were not allowed at the second trial. Prosecutors also said then that the brothers were seeking their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

Not all members of the Menéndez family support a new sentence. Attorneys for Milton Anderson, Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, filed a legal brief asking the court to uphold the brothers’ original punishment. “They shot his mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Anderson’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was fair and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”

The Los Angeles district attorney is in the midst of a tough re-election fight against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who has blamed Gascón’s progressive reform policies for recent high-profile murders and rising crime. in retail trade.

The Menendez case has gained new momentum in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true crime drama” Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez.”

But although about 30 relatives have come forward to ask for leniency, not all family members agree that the brothers should be released.

Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, who is 90, said through an attorney earlier this month that he believes “the appropriate sentence” is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The evidence under prosecutorial review included a letter written by Erik Menendez that his attorneys say corroborates allegations that his father sexually abused him.

Roy Rosselló, former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently revealed that he was drugged and raped by José Menéndez, the children’s father, when he was a teenager in the 1980s.

Menudo signed to RCA Records, which José Menéndez managed at the time.

Rosselló spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docuseries “Menéndez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” Their accusations are part of the evidence listed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney, seeking a review of their case. Rosselló’s claim that he was raped twice by José Menéndez is part of the Menéndez brothers’ petition.

Although Kitty Menendez was not accused of abusing her children, she appears to have facilitated the abuse, according to the petition. A cousin testified during the brothers’ first trial that Lyle told her he was too afraid to sleep in his room because his father would come in and touch his genitals. When the cousin told Kitty Menendez, she “angryly dragged Lyle up the stairs by his arm,” the petition said.

Another family member testified that when José Menéndez was in the bedroom with one of the children, no one was allowed to walk down the hallway, according to the petition.